TidBITS#55/08-Apr-91
====================
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Topics:
MailBITS/15-Apr-91
TechnoBITS/15-Apr-91
The LC's Hidden Secret
GigaGigaROM
El Cheapo Modem
Reviews/15-Apr-91
MailBITS/15-Apr-91
------------------
Michael Hart of Project Gutenberg (a project to provide free
electronic texts to the world) writes:
"Are you an April fool if you believe:
1. Hard disk storage can be bought for $.25 per megabyte.
2. The same drives can be used on DOS, MAC and UNIX machines.
3. 9600 baud modems are available at $169.
4. IBM spelled out the letters IBM with individual xenon
atoms.
5. AT&T did theirs with one atom eight years earlier.
6. The AT&T people used IBM-invented equipment.
7. The first Project Gutenberg text was net posted 20 years
ago.
8. 10,000 ASCII etexts will be posted by the end of year 2001.
9. The storage space, machine, and drives already fit on a
desktop."
Robert Minich muses on the subject of the Apple/Microsoft suit,
"I'm no lawyer (!) but I think the title [of our article in
TidBITS#47] should have been "Apple 0.5, MS 0.5, The Rest Of Us
1.0" as I felt what the judge ruled included these major items: 1)
Apple does have a basis to protect the Mac OS and GUI 2) "Original
work" in copyright law is apparently best translated as being
easily distinguishable. More subtle implications seem apparent to
me, though they may seem arbitrary to you. The above points seem
to imply that since the Mac GUI isn't a copy of Star/Smalltalk, MS
Windows isn't likely to be in too much danger. I wish I could find
a Star to play with and judge for myself the validity of the
judge's claim. It also seems to me that MS screwed up in
entering into its original agreement with Apple since it seems
that they have implicitly accepted Apple's right to the Mac GUI. I
also found the agreement itself rather interesting in that Apple
and MS were in a way bedfellows. Is it a fatal attraction?"
Ted Weverka kindly let us know about the real terms for some huge
numbers.
10^-12 = pico
10^-15 = fempto
10^-18 = atto
and
10^12 = tera
10^15 = peta
10^18 = exa (this is the one we were looking for with megatera
and gigagiga)
He writes, "We are starting to see more frequent use of peta in
the sciences. The high power lasers for inertial confinement
fusion are approaching a megajoule in a nanosecond for a petaWatt.
These are all I know, and all I believe exist (i.e. there is no
10^21 or 10^-21). I found these some years ago (and memorized
them) in the back of the Hewlett Packard manuals for programming
the HP9836 in BASIC."
Information from:
Michael S. Hart -- hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
Robert Minich -- minich@d.cs.okstate.edu
Ted Weverka -- weverka@sashimi.Colorado.EDU
TechnoBITS/15-Apr-91
--------------------
Researchers at Bellcore have created a holographic system for high
speed data retrieval using an array of 1000 semiconductor lasers
on a chip to retrieve holographic images stored in a single
crystal. Unfortunately, the researchers have only retrieved a few
images - ultimately they hope to get up to 1000 images from a
crystal. Another company, Microelectronics and Computer
Technology, is working on a method of storing holographic images
in crystallite arrays rather than the single crystals used by
Bellcore. Eventually, the holographic images could be used for
data storage. While 1000 lasers on a chip is impressive, IBM
recently developed a two inch chip holding 20,000 lasers. The
ability to put 20,000 lasers on a chip promises a lot for
technologies like laser printing, CD-ROM, and fiber optic
information transmission.
The memory world has two new technologies, one from IBM and one
from SHRAM. IBM showed the "Lightning" SRAM (static RAM) chip at
the IEEE conference in February. The chip holds up to 512K of
information and can send and receive eight billion bits per
second, a feat achieved by having the chip carry out read and
write operations simultaneously. SHRAM announced Sheet RAM, which
is composed of a ferromagnetic layer on top of a neutral
substrate. A single Hall-effect (no idea what that is, sorry)
transistor sits on top of the ferromagnetic layer for each memory
cell, a scheme somewhat similar to core memory, with its magnetic
donuts on interlaced wires. Sheet RAM resembles core memory in
that it stores bits by changing magnetic polarity, though of a
region rather than a discrete donut. Since Sheet RAM is
nonvolatile and probably relatively easy to produce, it could
become an excellent form of fast, permanent storage.
Olivetti announced a line of portable PC-clones that are
distinguished from the rest of pack by removable keyboards and
built-in touch pads for cursor control. One of the problems with
laptop and notebook computers is that they can seldom use a mouse.
Microsoft's BallPoint (which has been well received so far) helps
to address the problem of graphical input, but it's definitely an
add-on, in comparison to Olivetti's built-in touch-pads.
I love new input devices, and BioControl Systems of Palo Alto may
have one of the best so far. It's a device mounted on a headband
that monitors the electrical field movement of your eyes and moves
an object on the screen accordingly. BioControl Systems is looking
for capital to go beyond the current prototype, possibly first
into video game control, but eventually into mouse-type
manipulations. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but could play
havoc with your eyes after a while.
Related articles:
COMMUNICATION WEEK -- 04-Feb-91, pg. 22
BYTE -- Jan-91, pg. 20
BYTE -- Mar-91, pg. 28
PC WEEK -- 11-Mar-91, Vol. 8, #10, pg. 22
InfoWorld -- 11-Mar-91, Vol. 13, #10, pg. 24
BYTE -- Mar-91, pg. 32
The LC's Hidden Secret
----------------------
Well of course it's hidden, it's a secret! Apple didn't want to
admit this for a while, but it's been out long enough that
something's finally come of it. The new Macintosh LC can drive
many standard VGA monitors from the PC world with the addition of
a special cable. Considering that the LC is a low-cost color
machine, low-cost monitor options are important. Apple addressed
this with the 12" Apple Color monitor, but that monitor suffers
from a large pixel size and thus a small amount of information on
screen. People who've used it say that it's slightly larger than
the 9" monochrome monitors.
However, you can buy some pretty good VGA monitors these days. The
truly good ones run about the same amount of money as the
excellent 13" Apple Color Monitor, but you can find perfectly
reasonable screens for less if you poke around. You have a better
chance of finding a good used VGA monitor than you do a used
Macintosh monitor. It's likely that even a good VGA monitor will
not have the same clarity and bright colors as a Macintosh monitor
simply because the Mac and the PC deal with monitors differently
and many VGA monitors aren't designed for use with the Mac (most
PC-clone monitors use solid colors for the background color and
the text color etc., whereas the Mac uses a standard grey color
for the desktop (though you can change this) and applies spot
color to selected objects and types of objects).
Apple won't help you avoid buying an Apple monitor, so you'll have
to find or build your own cable. InfoWorld published a pin-out and
wiring diagram in its 11-Mar-91 issue on pg 38, so if you're the
enterprising engineer sort, solder away. Alternately, BMUG (the
Berkeley Macintosh Users' Group) has a kit for those of you who
don't like poking through electronics stores to find parts. If you
are less enthusiastic about solder flux, you have a couple of
options. NEC will send you a free cable to work with its 2A or 3D
Multisync monitors (at least the 3D is a nice monitor - I haven't
seen the 2A). More generally, you can buy a $40 adapter from James
Engineering, Inc. The MacVGA sits between the Mac and the VGA
monitor cable.
To reiterate: test any monitor before you commit to buying it
(though in this case, you may have to buy your cable before buying
your monitor in order to run the test). Not all VGA monitors will
work, and the more expensive SuperVGA and UltraVGA monitors will
not provide better than 640 x 480 resolution.
If Apple would offer the two-floppy drive LC to normal people (as
far as we know, only educational departments can purchase that
configuration now), you could assemble a powerful and inexpensive
LC system with a third party hard drive and a decent VGA monitor.
BMUG Inc. -- 415/549-2684
James Engineering -- 415/525-7350
NEC -- 312/237-2264 (number to call for cable)
Related articles:
MacWEEK -- 02-Apr-91, Vol. 5, #13, pg. 6
MacWEEK -- 22-Jan-91, Vol. 5, #3, pg. 6
InfoWorld -- 11-Mar-91, Vol. 13, #10, pg. 38
InfoWorld -- 28-Jan-91, Vol. 13, #4, pg. 34
GigaGigaROM
-----------
Well, actually it's only one Giga, but the name of a new CD-ROM
product from Quantum Leap Technologies reminded me of our recent
mix up about the prefix for 10^18. The Giga-ROM CD is not
revolutionary as such, since it is merely a collection of
shareware and public domain programs, much like the PD-ROM from
the Boston Computer Society. Giga-ROM includes a huge number of
files, 11,676 to be precise, and Quantum Leap has compressed all
of them with Compact Pro from Bill Goodman. Since Compact Pro can
often compress files to half their original size and a CD-ROM can
hold about 650 MB, it's not unlikely that the disk contains a full
gigabyte of files, hence the name. The size makes Giga-ROM the
largest static collection of shareware and public domain software.
What's more interesting about Giga-ROM than its sheer size is a
related product, Directories and Menus for the Giga-ROM, that
allows the disk to be used immediately with a Second Sight BBS.
The maker of Directories and Menus for the Giga-ROM, DMI Systems,
sells the disk and its product for a special price of $169. The
disk alone will list for $199 and the Directories and Menus for
the Giga-ROM will list for $69, so the bundle is a good deal if
you are a Second Sight sysop with a little extra money and a
CD-ROM drive.
The Directories and Menus for the Giga-ROM is just what it sounds
like, an integrated, pre-built set of 142 Second Sight menus and
158 file directories for the Giga-ROM, It's not a trivial task to
set up these menus and directories, and the concept of setting up
that many menus and directories is frightening. DMI claims that
its single-step installation process is easy and takes only about
30 minutes. Of course, finding a file in a haystack while
connected by modem isn't much fun, so DMI includes a completely
keyword text index that can be used with a runtime version of Pete
Johnson's Archie, which I assume is an archive manager. For more
speed, users can download the index and use it locally. If you
want to use Giga-ROM locally, Quantum Leap includes an ON Location
index if you happen to use ON Location for disk and file indexing.
I haven't seen this product yet, since neither I nor my local
Second Sight BBS (the Memory Alpha BBS, kindly run by Mark H.
Anbinder) have a CD-ROM player. However, the price on CD-ROM
players is coming down slowly, and eventually it will be
financially feasible for a small local BBS to have as many files
available as some commercial online services. Quantum Leap
guarantees virus-free files, and since they exist on a read-only
medium, those files will remain virus-free, a guarantee that I
hope will improve the reputation of BBS's in terms of virus
contagion. The read-only medium also ensures that the disk will
require no maintenance, unlike standard hard disk systems. Of
course, a BBS would need a hard disk to receive new files and to
make mail possible, so the Giga-ROM won't reduce the current
amount of maintenance.
A similar product that I haven't heard as much about is the BBS in
a Box from Wayzata Technology. It includes fewer files than the
Giga-ROM, only 7000, but includes directories for the Second Sight
and also the graphical Telefinder BBS.
Quantum Leap Technologies -- 800/762-2877
DMI Systems -- 514/932-4066
Wayzata Technology -- 800/735-7321 -- 612/447-7321
Information from:
Quantum Leap Technologies propaganda
Related articles:
MacWEEK -- 16-Apr-91, Vol. 5, #14, pg. 20
El Cheapo Modem
---------------
Once you've got your Second Sight BBS running the Giga-ROM, you
might want to upgrade your modem. Of course, all of this assume a
rich relative recently passed away and left you a ton of money
(preferably in paper, though I'd rather have a ton of quarters
than a ton of pennies). Standard 9600 baud v.everything (that's my
abbreviation for v.22, v.22bis, v.32, v.42, v.42bis, and MNP 1-5,
though not v.32bis, which is just starting to show up in modems
now) modems run about $500 on the low end. $500 is an excellent
price for such a modem, since when talking to another v.everything
modem, it can quadruple the speed to 38,400 baud (and yes, I do
know the approximate difference between baud and bits-per-second,
I prefer using baud since it's easier to say even though the two
aren't exactly equivalent).
But if a man in a trench coat came up to you in a dark alley and
said, "Hey. Mac. Wanna buy a 9600 baud modem, cheap? How about a
measly $169?" What would you say? Considering that you're talking
to a man in trench coat in a dark alley, you probably wouldn't
enter into a detailed discussion about whether or not the modem
supported v.42 bis. You'd probably say nervously, "Sure, sounds
good," give him the money, and stick to the lighted alleys the
rest of the way home.
When you arrive home and look at what you've got, it would
probably be a CompuCom 9600 baud modem that does support MNP 5,
but not v.32, v.32bis, v.42, or v.42bis. CompuCom is bucking the
mega-compatible trend (that makes it pico-compatible, I guess), so
its modem, the SpeedModem Champ, will only work at 2400 baud with
most other modems, 4800 baud if the other modem supports MNP 5.
However, CompuCom came up with its own proprietary protocol and
error checking mechanisms, so if you're talking to another
SpeedModem Champ, you can hit the same 38,400 baud that the more
expensive modems can do. Considering the fact that you can buy
three SpeedModem Champ modems for the price of even the cheapest
of the v.everything modems, it's a gamble that just might work.
If you are interested in fast communications and know that
everyone you will be talking to at 9600 baud will also be using a
SpeedModem Champ, it sounds like a pretty good deal. And if the
other people don't have SpeedModem Champs, well, 2400 baud with
MNP 5 isn't too bad and $169 is less than I paid for my 2400 baud
MNP 5 Practical Peripherals modem a year ago.
Oh, yeah, I should mention that you should never buy modems from
guys in dark alleys, especially if they're clothed in trench
coats. The modem you just bought is an internal PC card and won't
even think about working with a Macintosh. CompuCom is working on
an external version of the modem that will probably be slightly
more expensive (external modems always are) and will work with the
Mac. The nice person I spoke with on the phone assured me that the
external version should be out late this summer, since she had a
Mac Plus and wanted one.
CompuCom -- 800/228-6648
Information from:
CompuCom representative
Related articles:
InfoWorld -- 01-Apr-91, Vol. 13, #13, pg. 31
Reviews/15-Apr-91
-----------------
* MacWEEK
Video F/X 1.1, pg. 32
Personal LaserWriter LS, pg. 32
Network SuperVisor 1.04, pg. 34
1 Shot Worksheet, pg. 35
American Heritage Dictionary, pg. 36
Compression Boards, pg. 39
DoubleUp
Gold Card
* PC WEEK
SQL Query Programs, pg. 91
Graphical Query Language 2.1
DataPrism 1.1
ClearAccess 1.2
References:
MacWEEK -- 09-Apr-91, Vol. 5, #14
PC WEEK -- 08-Apr-91, Vol. 8, #14
..
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